1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electronic devices in general, and particularly to an electronic device having a member for chassis.
2. Description of Related Art
Chassis of various types of electronic devices, such as a laptop personal computer (laptop PC), a tablet personal computer (tablet PC), a smartphone, and a mobile phone are required to be lightweight and thin and have high strength. To this end, a sheet-like member for chassis including a prepreg plate containing reinforcement fibers, such as carbon fibers, impregnated with thermosetting resin, such as epoxy resin (a fiber-reinforced resin plate) and an intermediate layer made of a foam material, for example, sandwiched therein is widely employed as electronic device chassis.
When the above-mentioned type of laminated plate is employed as a chassis of a laptop PC or the like, it is necessary to perform desired shape machining to form a wall or the like at least on the periphery of the laminated plate. The laminated plate, however, is formed by using a hard fiber-reinforced resin plate and therefore is low in the degree of freedom in shape machining such as bending.
When a member for chassis is coupled and fixed to another member for chassis to form a single chassis, a nut forming a female thread part is insert-molded in the thermoplastic resin portion that is joined with the laminated plate. In this configuration, however, the nut is disposed in the thermoplastic resin portion joined in the outside of the outside end face of the laminated plate. Therefore, when an impact or an external force is applied to the chassis, the impact or external force is directly transmitted from the thread fastening two members for chassis to each other to the thermoplastic resin portion via the nut. As a result, large load tends to be applied to the thermoplastic resin portion lower in strength than the laminated plate portion having high strength or to a joint interface between the thermoplastic resin portion and the laminated plate, thereby requiring a member for chassis to have even higher strength of the chassis.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved member for chassis capable of achieving high strength.